Border Crisis Looms Over Obama’s Texas Trip

A march in front of the White House in Washington, Monday, July 7, 2014, following a news conference of immigrant families and children’s advocates.

Associated Press

The White House is unapologetically bucking calls for President Barack Obama to visit the U.S. border while he’s in Texas this week to raise money for Democrats, but officials are privately considering how he might otherwise address the crisis during his two-day trip.

Mr. Obama’s aides insist he will not travel to the border where an influx of children from Central America has created a situation the White House describes as a humanitarian crisis. White House press secretary Josh Earnest dismissed concerns about the “optics” of the president raising millions of dollars in Texas while the crisis at the border simmers.

“And that’s simply because the president is very aware of the situation that exists on the southwest border,” Mr. Earnest told reporters Monday. He also said the administration expects the majority of the children currently detained at the border will be deported.

“It’s unlikely that most of the kids who go through this process will qualify for humanitarian relief, which is to say that most of them will not have a legal basis — will not be found, through that court process, to have a legal basis – to remain in this country,” Mr. Earnest said.

The images along the border have made it hard for Mr. Obama to avoid the issue while in Washington, let alone when he’s just miles away from it hobnobbing with well-heeled Democrats in Austin and Dallas.

That’s why White House officials are not ruling out an immigration-focused event in the region but away from the border. Mr. Obama is also scheduled to hold an economy-focused event in Austin.

And in advance of his arrival in Texas on Wednesday, the White House will formally request supplemental funds from Congress to help respond to the crisis.

Details of the funds will be announced Tuesday, Mr. Earnest said. Mr. Obama is expected to request around $2 billion to help more quickly process the surge of immigration cases along the border.

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